Protecting
by jcause
Summary: A sequel to my previous Warehouse fic 'Longing'. It follows the events of the series 4 episode "Instinct" immediately after Myka drives away with Pete. Helena is left in the driveway processing what has happened and answering to more than her own emotions.
1. Chapter 1

Protecting

"Friends." As the SUV pulled away Helena's heart sank. Having had a long, unique, life she had endured enough good-byes to fill multiple lifetimes but Myka driving away had to be the hardest. "There was only one way for this to play out," Helena reminded herself as she took a deep breath.

Sneaking away from Myka's bed in the middle of the night so many months before had been painful but not as painful as looking into her hurt and confused eyes as she offered up support for the path Helena was seemingly on. Had Myka fought, any resolve Helena had left would have been destroyed.

Thankfully, despite Myka's book smarts and grasp of language, the brunette with the curly hair and the shy smile hadn't managed the words Helena knew we're bubbling under the surface. Hearing the unspoken would have been enough for Helena to climb in the SUV with Myka and go wherever she asked. The problem, Myka would have wanted them to go back to the Warehouse and that wasn't an option. Helena had a debt to repay the Regents and obviously, as she was still assigned, they weren't yet satisfied that she had done as they required of her. Fighting back the emotions that were creeping to the surface Helena hated how her poor choices had brought such pain, yet again, to a woman she fit with so perfectly.

A cool breeze crept into the air. "Next time I go it alone," Helena's words weren't to the night but instead the figure that she knew had appeared in the driveway. The rest of the Warehouse tended to jump when the figure appeared but Helena was used to the unexpected. Before she had the chance to turn and face the guest, Helena's statement got a reply.

"I am very sorry it had to play out as it did," the tone was sincere and the voice unmistakable.

"Centuries of experience protecting the world from artifacts and you insisted I reach out to them, to her," Helena exclaimed as she turned to face Mrs. Fredric. "I was more than capable of solving this by myself."

"The priority was protecting Adelaide and we nearly lost her even with the team involved. The Regents felt that splitting your focus between the artifact's retrieval and the child was too great a risk."

"Believe me when I say, my focus was split."

Mrs. Fredric nodded. "But you all persevered."

"No thanks to me dragging her through an unnecessary reunion."

"It was unfortunate that an artifact landed in your lap but the safe retrieval was crucial."

"Above all else," Helena mumbled under her breath. "If there is ever a next time I will not put her through that again."

"Or yourself," Mrs. Fredric offered kindly but pointedly.

"I can handle it but Myka is in the dark and that makes none of this fair to her. The last she knew I was sent away by all of you to complete a task. To her it now looks as if I have finished that task and settled into a stable existence without even a word."

The older woman politely ignored the true meaning behind Helena's poorly veiled explanation. "Despite the personal connection the two of you share, Agents Bering and Lattimer were the best warehouse agents for the job."

"Any of them could have handled this," the comment brought no response, which only made Helena angry but not wanting to continue stirring things up she re-focused the conversation. "So my cover is blown. I assume I will be replaced."

"The Regents don't believe that will be necessary."

"How can that be? Continuing to lie to Nate is futile. He knows I'm not who I claim to be."

"You are Helena Wells, a former federal agent in witness protection."

"So, more lies."

Compassion filled the older woman's face. "They are necessary."

"So you keep saying."

"The child has grown fond of you and so her father will get over his concerns."

"To what end?"

"May I remind you that the child's mother was killed trying to protect her."

Mrs. Fredric's reminder wasn't necessary but certainly trumped Helena's moment of selfish longing. Turning back towards where the car drove away Helena sighed. "I know why I am here."

"And we are very grateful for your commitment."

"Obligation." Helena said with the guilt of her past mistakes influencing each syllable. Turning back towards Mrs. Fredric it wasn't surprising that the old woman was gone.

Alone in the driveway of a suburban home Helena G. Wells sighed.

Myka had been right. Adelaide's presence in her life had caused Helena to cherish her as much as she had her Christina. The death of her own daughter, so many years before, had broken Helena's spirit and hardened her soul. The actions she had taken since Christina's death were selfish and destructive and then Myka Bering came along. The smart, savvy, and beautiful Warehouse agent had made Helena want to be a better person and yet the ache of losing a child still lingered under the surface. It had even led Helena to place a gun to Myka's temple but somehow the connection Helena felt for her fellow Warehouse agent began to heal some of the old, deep wounds and she surrendered.

Since having to walk away from Myka, it was Adelaide who had unknowingly helped Helena to hold onto her rediscovered humanity. The child had begun as a task assigned by her superiors but had turned into a touchstone. The smart, grounded, child, who the Regents were so focused on protecting, reminded Helena of the innocence of youth and the wonder of learning; so much so that not even brief possession of the astrolabe or access to the Warehouse had tempted Helena to do anything drastic with the powerful artifacts within arms length. There was a peace within Helena she never thought possible.

She and Myka Bering had switched places. Where before Helena had been the unpredictable loose cannon it was now a world of suburban calm for her, while Myka ran around saving the world. Helena told herself the assignment wasn't forever but she feared it might be. Helena told herself Myka would understand in the end but feared she wouldn't.

Having spent a few days with Myka close enough to hold in her arms, Helena realized the time for being the good solider was over. Suddenly a curiosity as to why Adelaide needed protecting crept into Helena's mind.

When Jane Latimer had assigned her the task of growing close to Nate and his daughter in order to keep them safe, Helena had seen it as a means to an end. Protect the marks and some day she would be allowed a clean slate and maybe a chance to return to a life of adventure, maybe even get the girl. The problem was the time frame was no longer to Helena's liking. After seeing the pain her new, secret, life was causing Myka it was time to stop playing house and start being H.G. Wells. There was a mystery to solve and she was determined to solve it.

Author's Notes: After the rather dramatic, but in my opinion shortsighted reactions to the season 4 episode "Instinct", I saw an opportunity to show a version of what could really be going on in HG's world. This does live just outside of the series cannon as I have written it also as a sequel to my previous Warehouse fic "Longing". Interestingly enough, both pieces, for the most part stick just close enough to the series storytelling that they could be lost episodes. Not sure if this will be vastly expanded on or will remain a short few chapters worth of story. Either way I hope this possible reasoning brings hope to many as to how things could really be playing out in the lives of Wells and Bering.


	2. Chapter 2

Protecting Chapter 2

"Are you coming inside?" Adelaide asked from her place at the top of the driveway.

Helena was startled by the young girl's question. Somehow Helena was attuned to Mrs. Fredrics' arrival but not that of a young girl. It either reinforced how unique the child was or how frustrated Helena had become after the older woman's visit.

Turning to Adelaide, Helena made an effort to alter her body language as to not give the young girl pause. Her powers of observation rivaled even Helena's and she didn't want to alarm her or raise questions. "I have some stuff to deal with at the office."

"You think my dad's mad."

"Well, that didn't work," Helena, thought. No point masking anything. "There is that."

"It wasn't your fault and you and Myka rescued me."

"I'm not sure your dad sees it that way."

"He's just confused."

"He has reason to be."

Adelaide nodded. "Because you lied before."

It was a statement and not a question. What else had the pre-teen noticed?

"You and your friend Myka, you had adventures together, didn't you?"

The question wasn't at all what Helena expected. "We did," she answered, hesitantly.

"She's your best friend."

The vocabulary was that of a young person but the tone Adelaide asked the question was that of someone much older. Although she didn't have the words to properly present the observation she was grasping at Helena knew that Adelaide understood the exact nature of things. "Yes, she is."

The child's eyebrows rose. "But you let her leave."

"Yes."

"Is my dad going to get hurt?"

"I don't want that and it's why I think I should go and work at the office tonight."

Adelaide nodded and then her face grew sad. "You're here to help me."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because all the pieces fit."

Helena's admiration for the young girl's intelligence grew, as did her curiosity. Teaching Adelaide the finer points of body language, tone of voice, and general observation was one thing but her analytical thinking was phenomenal for someone so young. "What pieces?"

"Well, to begin with the way we met. Dad had taken me to my class and you were in the parking lot having issues with your car. You've never had issues with it since."

"Cars can be tricky. I don't have a lot of experience with them but I'm a fast learner."

"My dad barely wiggled something under the hood and the car started almost immediately. You rigged it."

Again not a question. Honesty was the only approach that wouldn't alienate the young girl. "I did. What else have you noticed?"

"Stuff I saw you hiding around the house like in the garage and the basement mostly. It didn't seem like it was every day stuff. It seemed special. I'm I in danger? Is my dad?"

Bending down to the child's level Helena gently took Adelaide's shoulders and looked her in the eyes. "As long as I'm here I will do everything in my power to make sure you and your father are safe."

"I believe you." In a rare moment of affection she wrapped her arms tightly around Helena's neck. Following the child's lead, Helena hugged her back. With the tiny frame engulfed in a hug, Helena caught Nate watching the pair of them from the front window. The second he was spotted he walked away from where he stood.

As the hug broke Helena saw tiny tears on Adelaide's cheek. The young girl brushed them away with the side of her hand. "Why would someone want to hurt me?"

"I don't know."

Adelaide's eyes didn't waiver from Helena's. "Could you find out?"

There was only one answer to the question. "Yes."

…

The SUV pulled to a stop at the red light and the only reason Myka Bering noticed was because Pete decided there had been enough silence. "We aren't talking about it, right? I mean we could talk about it. Partners talk about things but I'm thinking we aren't talking about it."

This was the last thing Myka needed. "We aren't talking about it."

"I thought so."

Out of the corner of her eye Myka noticed the streetlight turn green but the vehicle didn't budge. "Pete, the light's green."

"You know we could talk about it."

"Pete, the light," Myka repeated as she gestured forward.

"No one is around and the police chief is in jail. I can sit at a green light."

"Go."

"We should talk."

"Pete!"

"See, if we talk you won't be as upset and you'll stop yelling at me when you really want to be yelling at her."

"What do you know about it?"

"I've dated my share of challenging women, was even married to one."

Myka exhaled. "There's nothing to talk about."

"There is plenty to talk about."

"She's happy."

"Mikes, for someone who kicks butt at observation you were missing things back there."

"Would you please drive before someone comes up behind us and slams into the car."

"On an empty suburban road at midnight?"

"Pete, drive!"

"Myka, talk," Pete put his foot on the accelerator and pulled thru the barely green light.

They made it exactly one block and Myka broke the silence. "She's where she needs to be. That's what matters."

"What matters is that you, want where she needs to be, to be with you."

"Don't be ridiculous."

"Claud told me she ran into HG the night she disappeared."

"So."

"So..."

Myka could actually hear Pete's eyebrows rise as he drove through the dark streets of Boone, Wisconsin. He scored some points with her by not adding childish musical accompaniment with his comment but not many. "It's in the past. She's happy."

"You're wrong."

"Pete, it was all there in front of us. She's found somewhere she fits."

"She fits at the Warehouse. This is about that kid and you know it."

"So what. If that's what she needs."

"To try and rewrite the past? She can't. No one can. Believe me I've tried."

"She needs to figure that out for herself."

"We both know I could just turn the car around and make you talk some sense into her."

"But you won't."

"How do you know?"

"Cause on some level you get it or you wouldn't have wished her luck."

"Doesn't mean I think it's where she belongs."

The sweet sincerity in Pete's voice gripped Myka's heart like a vise. He had gone from having total distain for Helena to seeing her as one of them. He had gone from thinking Myka a pain in his butt to looking out for her like a big brother. If Myka had allowed herself to feel the depth of his statement the locked up tears would have flowed freely. Instead she glanced back out the window beside her and mumbled under her breath. "There we agree."

Before the conversation could develop any further the Farnsworth sitting next to them in the cup holder buzzed. Myka reached over and opened it. After pushing the button on the face of the device, their boss Artie Nielsen stared back at her in the lens. "Everything okay, Artie?"

"It's fine. All good here but we got a ping."

Pete grumbled from the driver's seat. "Aww, seriously, Artie, we haven't slept in days. Can't Jinxy and Claudia handle it?"

"No, they can't. I need their help cleaning up some stuff around here. You two are it."

"That's fine, Artie. Where are we headed?" Myka asked like a dutiful employee.

"Winnipeg. A twenty-three year old is in the hospital after a heart attack that has no medical explanation.

Pete grumbled again. "There are thousands of reasons someone so young could have a heart attack."

"No. Medical. Reason." Artie reiterated. "And it's the third such case in five months."

"Comedy and bad stuff... always happening in threes," Pete offered in a relenting tone.

"We're on it," Myka interrupted.

"Great. Check in after you see the victim. In the meantime I will run any known artifacts that induce heart attacks."

Pete rolled his eyes and pulled the car to a stop at another red light. "Try a bacon double cheeseburger."

Artie didn't even give Pete the satisfaction of responding and cut off the transmission. Pushing the button a second time Myka closed the Farnsworth and placed it back in the cup holder. "Guess we are off to Winnipeg."


	3. Chapter 3

Protecting 3

Helena awoke with a start. Shaking off a nightmare she couldn't quite recall, she looked to the wall and noticed it was a little before 5am. She hadn't been asleep long.

Last she remembered she had been compiling data using a computer in her office. Falling asleep when researching wasn't typically something Helena did. She supposed the time spent trying to locate the artifact and recovering Adelaide had taken its toll.

Glancing at the computer screen she had been focused on before falling asleep brought back the line of investigation she had been working on at the time. A series of boxes, she learned were called windows, were open on the screen. Every one of them was tied to Adelaide's traceable family history.

Her father, Nate, could be best described as normal. He had a regular job and came from regular parents who also came from regular parents. Nothing remarkable or out of order had surfaced in her investigation of him. Had Helena not known him as well as she did she might have been suspicious of that much normal but the research matched the man, perfectly.

As normal as Nate was, Adelaide's deceased mother was far from it. Other than the woman's marriage and death notices as well as Adelaide's birth announcement there was no trail. It was as if the women never existed. Box after box of dead-ends of a different kind. This kind was one that screamed mystery to Helena.

From her own life experience Helena knew that very few people in the world were truly untraceable unless someone needed them to be. Many a search for artifacts during her original tenure as a Warehouse agent had been cluttered with 'untraceables', almost all of which were tied to something far from legal. So why would a seemingly normal suburban woman killed in a horrible car accident have no life outside her marriage, her death, and the birth of her daughter?

Lacking the skills to dig any further in this century, Helena knew only one person she could trust to help her in her search and keep it a secret. It would be difficult to reach out without being found out but it was now even more important to follow through on her promise to Adelaide. Helena smelled a mystery and perhaps a dangerous one at that.

Logging into an email service Helena had once asked for help setting up, she quickly composed a message. She then carefully typed each letter and number of the email address she had committed to memory. A final review of the message and she pushed send and hoped that the address was as secret and secure as Claudia had once promised.

...

Throwing his duffle on the bed Pete Lattimer surveyed the hotel room while fighting off a yawn. He guessed he had managed about eight hours sleep in the last three days. Due to the nature of the new investigation Artie had sent them on Pete figured he could manage about six hours sleep before he and Myka would be allowed access to the victim. Even with federal agency credentials, hospital red tape usually limited them to general visiting hours especially in foreign countries.

Stripping down into something more comfortable to sleep in Pete tossed his clothes on a chair and then yanked out his toothbrush and paste. Good dental hygiene was as important as protecting the world but a shower could wait until morning.

While brushing his teeth Pete stared at himself in the mirror. Almost four years of working as a Warehouse Agent had been great in some ways and terrible in others. Upside, he enjoyed his new mission in life, had discovered a family of people he would take a bullet for, and had remained clean and sober. The downside was the bags under his eyes were starting to grow bags. The work wasn't exactly without stress.

On the corner of his eyes were also the tiniest of lines. Most people wouldn't notice them amongst his other boy next-door features but of course Pete saw them. He had his health and loved his job so a little wrinkle or two was nothing in the grand scheme. Rinsing his mouth out with the hotel provided mouthwash he placed his toothbrush in a glass on the counter and headed back towards the bedroom.

He supposed it was his own coming to grips with aging that had caused him to wish Helena luck in her new life. It had been a selfish wish and one he deeply regretted the moment he had spoken it. People like Helena, or Myka, or himself weren't built for normal. They had seen too much and done even more; settling down was impossible.

Fighting off another yawn, Pete pulled back the covers and started to climb in as his mind began to run into overdrive. How could someone as bold and adventuresome as HG Wells throw away her life for normal? The bouncing around in his head suddenly turned dark and Pete had one of his very bad feelings. He hadn't experienced one this all consuming since Leena, their friend, had been recently murdered.

Doing his best to shake off the feeling he continued to climb into bed and pulled the covers over himself. Closing his eyes he tried to allow sleep to gain his mind's attention. It only seemed to make matters worse. Lying there, in the darkened room thanks to floor to ceiling curtains pulled tight across the windows, Pete couldn't shake the feeling that was gripping him.

If the situations were reversed and Pete was HG what would he need to settle for normal? The conclusion, with all things being equal, he would have no reason. Work came first. In fact work had come first in every instance over the past four years, even when Pete was ready to settle down with Kelly. Work still played a part in his decision. He was ready to open up his world to her not leave his life behind for her.

It was like a key sliding easily into a lock and turning. He knew why Helena was living her life in suburbia. She was working. The realization didn't help any; it made it worse. For such dark, bad, feelings to be washing over him, Pete hoped he was wrong but was certain Helena was in some kind of danger.

Pete couldn't just stand-by and do nothing. If there was still a chance to turn things from bad to good he had to too act on his concerns. The question was how to step in and help. If Helena was working for, say the Regents, they weren't going to let him walk into some top-secret mission. If they felt Helena needed backup certainly they would have sent her some to begin with. No, Pete knew he had to go off the radar to offer his assistance. No one could know the true nature of what he was doing.

Grabbing his cell, Pete dialed the one person he could count on to help back his play. If he was going to go outside his responsibility to the Warehouse but for reasons that were, at their core, honorable, there was only person he could trust to be his alibi.

It was early on the east coast, but he knew Amanda would already be at her desk on her second cup of coffee. His ex-wife was a creature of military trained habit. She answered on the second ring.


End file.
